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South Carolina’s longest-running Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade won’t happen on the holiday weekend, but it will still happen.

The 44th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade is postponed from Saturday, Jan. 18, to 1 p.m. next Saturday, Jan. 25.

The Western York County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People moved the York event back a week due to the weather forecast. The National Weather Service predicts a 70% chance of rain and a high of 51 degrees Saturday at the York County Airport in Rock Hill.

The main and related events at what’s been dubbed the “people’s parade” will all return to York on the makeup date.

“Starting at East Madison Street and we’re going to go all the way down to Jefferson Field with the vendors and the bands and the fun and the stage show — all of the things that we’ve been doing for the past 44 years,” Dontavius Williams with the Western York County branch said in a Facebook video announcing the date switch.

The parade has grown to more than 100 entries.

It includes everything from college marching bands to voter registration drives in election years. It’s meant to celebrate the holiday and bring the York community together. The parade began before the federal holiday was created.

“We will continue the show,” Williams said. “We will continue the fun. We will continue the community relationship building.”

There are several other Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations throughout the Rock Hill region:

▪ Hundreds of people are expected to attend the Interfaith Prayer Breakfast on Monday morning at First Baptist Church in Rock Hill. The event is sold out. Each year the event recognizes citizens for public service, awards youth essay winners and celebrates King’s legacy.

▪ Fort Mill hosts its MLK Call to Service Day on Monday. The town will have marked boxes in front of town hall from 9 to 11 a.m. to take donations for Classroom Ready, Fort Mill Care Center, Historic Paradise Foundation and York County Council on Aging.

▪ York has the Tender Hearts MLK Weekend Kickoff Celebration on Friday night. The United Mens Club of Clover has its fifth annual MLK Prayer Breakfast at 11 a.m. Monday.

▪ Lancaster has the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration & Parade starting at 3 p.m. Saturday. Activities are on Main Street, with a multicultural ceremony at Hope on the Hill after the parade.

▪ Chester hosts a parade and other activities in downtown on Sunday, starting at 3 p.m. Activities are hosted by the Chester County MLK Celebration Committee.

This story was originally published January 17, 2025 at 12:05 PM.

McKesson Medical-Surgical in Rock Hill has announced another round of layoffs, its second time cutting jobs in the past three months. They’re part of plans to close McKesson’s Rock Hill facility.

The company plans to lay off 179 workers by early March, according to a WARN report filed Dec. 13 with the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce. Large employers eliminating positions or companies reducing a large percentage of their workforce have to file those reports by state law.

McKesson filed a similar report in September, announcing 13 layoffs to be completed by mid-November. The combined 192 layoffs would tie McKesson with another York County company, Stanley Black & Decker, for the seventh-most jobs cut this year among 54 WARN reports filed statewide.

McKesson will make changes to its broader operations to become more efficient while simplifying its infrastructure, according to a statement issued to The Herald. “As part of these initiatives,” the statement said, “we have made the difficult decision to close our distribution center in Rock Hill.”

Employees were informed in September, the same month the initial WARN report was filed, according to the company. Workers who are losing their jobs will receive severance packages and other “career transition assistance,” according to the company. A full site closure is expected in March.

Located at 885 Paragon Way, McKesson is a distributor of medical and surgical supplies for hospitals, doctor offices and other health fields.

McKesson Medical-Surgical based in Virginia is part of the larger McKesson medical distribution and healthcare technology company based in Irving, Texas.

In 2014, McKesson Medical-Surgical announced $27.5 million plans to open a new York County distribution facility in Riverwalk Business Park.

The 300,000-square-foot facility would bring more than 140 jobs to Rock Hill, according to the announcement. The project received state job development credits and a $200,000 state grant for construction.

The Rock Hill site would serve doctors, surgery centers, long-term care facilities and home care businesses across the Carolinas, according to that announcement.

WARN reports list notices either as permanent layoffs or permanent closure.

The Black & Decker announcement, for instance, was listed as a closure to be completed by year’s end. Both McKesson notifications are listed as layoffs.

With the latest WARN report from McKesson, York County has 385 jobs impacted by layoff or closure notifications this year. Only Charleston (898 jobs), Georgetown (753) and Lexington (441) counties have more.

Only Greenville County, with five, has more permanent layoff notifications this year than York County.

York is one of three counties with three permanent layoff notifications this year, and that’s grouping the two McKesson filings together. Wisconsin-based Lost Boys Interactive announced a single layoff impacting a York County job.

This story was originally published December 17, 2024 at 9:55 AM.